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Actualités The Inheritance | The Inheritance |
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Can true love prevail over death, sadness and the ugly inheritance battle threatening to destroy a family? It is an especially festive evening: one of the granddaughters’of the family, daughter of the eldest son Majd, is getting married. The extended family gathers at the wedding hall, together with the clan and acquaintances. Everyone’s at the wedding: the five sons and daughters, Majd and Ahmad (with their wives and children), Zenab (with her husband and children), Marwan (with his small son, without his divorcee) and Hag’ar, whose Christian love Wisam cannot join the family event. He doesn’t belong; he’s a foreign seed in this expanded Muslim family from the Galilee whom everyone respects, thanks to the patriarch who is honoured, wealthy, and who rules the family with a firm hand. Or so it seems from the outside. When the patriarch Abu El-Majd collapses during the wedding, all dignity is instantly erased. Majd, the eldest, who is going through hard times with his construction company, wants to control the inheritance in order to save himself and his business. Just as important, he wants to salvage the respect that will be trampled by the family, especially by the father whom he deserted after many years of devotion. On the other hand, Hag’ar, the youngest daughter, a student who lives in Haifa, an opinionated feminist, insists on marrying her beloved Wisam, the Christian. However, she knows that should she run away with him or marry Wisam without her father’s consent, she will be hunted down to the end of the earth. A Muslim marrying a Christian? Never! Hag’ar and Wisam are political activists. They are part of the overall Palestinian struggle for independence and they both participate in political activities and demonstrations. The father’s collapse occurs on the day of the upsurge of the second Intifada (uprising) and Wisam becomes part of the smaller Intifada that breaks out inside Israel, between the country’s Arab citizens and Israeli security authorities. Hag’ar and Wisam represent a young, rebellious generation at odds with the apathy of the rural family whose main concern is to live a quiet life… As the father lies in a coma, Majd gets his brother Ahmad, the principal of the small village school, to side with him, because Ahmad wants to be Head of the local Council, a campaign that costs a lot of money. Only Marwan, the divorced son, torn between his love for his divorcee and desire to reunite with her, and his consuming jealousy, heralds the voice of morality and conscience. And the eldest sister Zenab? Well, she’s stuck with Khalil, her “mule”, who since the collapse of Abu El-Majd can be seen everywhere with his calculator, calculating his share (that is, his wife Zenab’s share) in the inheritance. In a short time period, a little over a week, the family embarks on a life and death journey. It’s a journey virtually no family in the world knows how to prepare for, and during which all the characters reveal their true personalities. Towards the end, when the story becomes markedly painful and driven by desires, it seems all is lost. Especially when Hag’ar decides to sell her soul to the devil and sign over power of attorney to Majd to be in charge of everything. Some will view the conclusion of this modern family tragedy as a happy end: Hag’ar marries her beloved, with her father’s consent (as indicated in his will); Majd, despite everything and following a long journey of humiliation and revelation, gains his father’s trust and management of the assets shifts to his hands, as befitting the eldest brother; Marwan reunites with his wife and aided by Hag’ar’s battle, he overcomes his jealousy and complex personality; Ahmad reveals he won’t be Head of Council and his end seems the saddest of all, especially when his battered wife Saada finally decides to leave him. But some would consider this a sad ending, one that drives Saada to leave Ahmad, an ending that humiliates Majd and Ahmad. And what becomes of politics? Like life, politics go on forever! Whatever the views about the way the story ends, it is indeed compelling, with emotions and desires that families around the world can understand, can identify with, can internalize. |
